8 in â€™08: Movies

Confession: I've only seen a modest handful of animated kids' movies. I know, I knowâ€”Monsters Inc. is that shit, and The Incredibles is fun for days. I'll go out on a limb, though, and say that Wall-E pretty much tramples upon every single one of them. This is my favorite love story of the year, hands down, and a true testament to the importance of expert storytelling. The first 30-or-so minutes are dialogue free, playing like an old Charlie Chaplin flick as my dude Wall-E feens for fellow nuts-and-bolts-heap Eva, and it's mesmerizing. Then, simply for good measure, the filmmakers inject some slick social commentary into the stream before returning to the star-crossed affections at hand. A kids' film that's smarter than a good 80% of the year's prestige pictures, and one that'll undoubtedly achieve "classicâ€ status down the line.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------